


On the Rooftop

by thefeelsonthebus



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-19
Updated: 2014-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-20 00:47:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1490518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefeelsonthebus/pseuds/thefeelsonthebus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a twist of fate brings them onto the rooftop at the same time for the same reason, which way will they get back down again?</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Rooftop

**Author's Note:**

> This one shot is entirely triggering. Do not read this if you ever think about suicidal thoughts. And please, please, talk to someone. I'm new to this website so I don't really know it but if you can leave comments I am here for you, whoever you are.

Leo was shaking. It was all coming back to him, every bit of it, and ever since the war, when he'd saved Calypso from the island only for her to turn mortal and die on him, for God's sake, he'd been spiraling downwards, his world turning black, and not even his oldest friends, Jason and Piper, could stop the darkness. He was useless, and he was a murderer, he basically murdered Calypso, oh yeah, and his mom, can't forget about her, and nobody needed him. He was a liability.

Ever since Camp Half Blood had been destroyed in the War of the Camps, all the demigods had been living in an apartment building in New York. He had been standing outside his apartment door on the eighteenth floor for over three hours, shaking uncontrollably, deciding whether to do it, deciding whether to go ten floors up only to plummet back down again. In that time, he had made his bed, and put all his belongings back in the cupboards. After all, he wouldn't want the police to clear up after a dead man, would he? He tossed his key back and forth in his hand, and eventually unlocked the door, throwing his keys back onto his bed. He didn't need them. He wasn't coming back. 

\--------

Three floors above him, Nico di Angelo was totally calm. He had been planning this day for months. It was 3:30am on December 19th, the day that Bianca died. It only seemed fitting that he should die on that day, four years after she did. "Happy birthday, Bianca." Nico muttered. "Here's your birthday present; I'm throwing myself off a building. Should I get you a piece of cake with that?" Nico laughed, an bitter laugh, that turned into a sob. "Well, I'll see you soon anyway." He spat, jamming his keys in his pockets and slamming the door as he walked out.

Nico had "friends" from the Argo II, people he still cared about, but nobody that really cared about him. Bianca was gone. Mom was gone. Hazel had moved to New Orleans with Frank. Annabeth had gone to study at Harvard, so Percy had moved apartments to be near her. He had nobody left. Nobody would miss him. Oh yeah, they'd grieve for a couple days, but they'd be over that by the end of the week. 

\--------

Leo took the lift. He really couldn't be bothered walking up ten flights of stairs. It would waste what little energy he needed to make his last journey. He jammed the button, tapping his foot impatiently until the doors silently slid open. 

The lift was silent. In some ways, Leo was glad, because he wouldn't have to listen to some sickening 80's tune that would only make him hate the world more, but in other ways he hated it. It gave him more time to think about his body falling, hitting the pavement at a thousand miles an hour. Blood splattering the paving stones. 

Yeah, Leo would have preferred the 80's music.

\--------

Nico ran his hand along the sign for the 21st floor and started climbing up the stairs. Each step he took, he thought of something he'd done wrong in his life. I let Bianca go, he thought. Mom's dead. I pushed everyone away. Nobody needs me. I ran away from my feelings. I ran away from Percy Jackson. He could have gone on for ages, but he ran out of steps. And he stood on the 28th, and top, floor, looking at the stars.

He'd once heard somewhere that suicide is poetic. That's not true. There is nothing poetic about someone being so depressed that they want to die. It's not that they want to be with the angels. It's not that they want to see what it's like to die. It's because the cold hard reality of life is breaking them down, and they just want to leave it behind because they aren't strong enough to face it. He isn't strong enough to face it.

\--------

Leo pushes the fire escape door open. He doesn't see how the roof is a fire escape, unless there's some secret staircase. Maybe it's giving you two options of how to die. How considerate of the building planners. 

He walks across the roof, pulling his jacket tight around him. It's a cold December night, and Leo can see his breath in the air. Well, it won't be there much longer, that's for sure. He reaches the edge of the roof, and steps onto the ledge, teetering a little. Should he? It seems a long way down. His heart is beating faster. "Huh." He mutters. "When you're about to die, your heart tries to keep going a lot, like it knows what's gonna happen." It's the first time he says it out loud. "I'm going to die!" He screams to Olympus. "I'M GOING TO DIE!" He laughs a twisted laugh, and it turns into a strangled sob. "I'm going to die." He whispers, tears running down his cheeks. "I want to die."

\--------

Nico comes out of the other side of the roof, and walks completely calmly to the edge. He steps up, and unlike Leo, doesn't look down. Nico looks up, to the sky, and imagines his spirit floating up there. Or would it float downwards? To the fields of punishment? Had all he'd done put him there? Or had he done enough good things in his life to get to Elysium? Well, he'd soon find out.

One foot is over the edge of the building when he hears the scream. Nico twists and falls off the edge, onto the roof, and scrapes his hand on the paving stones. But he gets up, not caring. Is someone else up here to do what he planned to do? It is now that Nico registers where he's heard the voice before, and he sets off running.

\--------

Leo wipes away his tears. He wouldn't want him to be found with tears running down his cheeks. That would make him look weak. But isn't that what he is? Weak? Not facing up to life? He'd done enough things in his pathetic seventeen years to die. Killing his mom. Basically killing Calypso. Blowing up New Rome. The list goes on. He deserved to die. So now, he was going to.

He was just about to step off the ledge when he heard his name, a desperate shriek to the winds. Leo turned around, and his heart sank as he saw Nico di Angelo racing towards him. This wasn't meant to happen. 

"Leo! Get down from there!" The younger teen shouts. Leo laughs bitterly. "Oh yeah, how are you going to stop me? And why are you even up here?" Nico run the rest of the distance in silence, and Leo is just about thinking Nico was just wandering on the rooftop in the early hours of the morning for some weird reason, when Nico steps up onto the ledge beside Leo, and his heart goes cold. "To do the same thing you came to do."

\---------

Nico almost laughs at how quickly Leo's expression drops. "Nico. Get down." "You get down." Nico fired back at him. Leo shakes his head. "I've done too much to live. You - you're only fifteen, you've got your whole life ahead of you -" "I've got nobody left!" Nico yells, interrupting him. "Nobody left that I care about!" Leo touches Nico's shoulder, and Nico almost flinches away from him, but he doesn't. "You've got me." There is a long pause, in which Nico doesn't break eye contact with Leo. Then Leo speaks again. "I'll get down if you get down."

Nico sighs. He doesn't want to do this, doesn't want to get down. But on the other hand, he can't just watch Leo jump to his death. He can't. So his hands lock around Leo's wrist, and he turns away from the drop, back towards the rooftop, and whispers "Together." Leo gives Nico a half smile, and they step back down onto the rooftop together. 

Nico reaches out to hold the older boy's other wrist, but Leo just ignores that and hugs him, and they exhale together. They stand there together, on the rooftop, until the sun rises, and then they both go back inside.


End file.
